Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Transform Education into Life-long Learning

As an undergrad student, I had to complete courses that did not seem to
have value for real life. The arguments used at the time to justify this
approach were:

We have to prepare you to be a
professional, regardless of the actual field/industry you might end up
working on, so we should cover all bases

This way you know in which book/body of knowledge to find the information, in case you ever need it during your career

We are teaching you to “learn how to learn”

While
“learning how to learn” continues to be a critical skill today, the
knowledge currently available over the internet has made the ability to
cover all bases a questionable goal. And the speed of change, makes
knowing the “right” book a daunting task.

On the
other hand, being able to quickly derive value from the (learning and
financial) investment is increasingly desirable. And soft skills like
the ability to work in groups (in an increasingly diverse global and multi-generational workforce),
and the ability to reach beyond your area of expertise (as part of
cross-functional teams) are increasingly required for one’s professional
success.

As we realize and internalize these and
other changes happening around us, here is how we can led the way and
retool our education system to address the needs of businesses and
society.

Transforming education into a life-long learning experience

In
our society, knowledge is needed in a snap, and only knowledge
applicable to the task at hand is sought. Therefore, it is necessary to
re-think our start-end bound “education” concept, one where we must
cover a preselected number of topics, and transform it into a life-long learning experience.

This
means going from a fixed curriculum to a flexible repository of
knowledge available on-demand. And focusing on individual learning needs
throughout each ones’ live, rather than looking to cover a specific set
of topics during a class or degree.

Purposeful networking - the path to effective teamwork

As
we are young, we tend to approach teamwork as an activity where we
select our team based on common interests and personal traits. The
growing workforce diversity makes it important for us to be able to
deliver results regardless of our personal affinities with others.
Students must have the opportunity to learn how to purposefully network
with those around them.

Purposeful networking is the
ability to identify one’s own strengths, communicate these strengths,
and dynamically connect with others in a complementary-skill team to
address a common goal.

And a life-long learning model is a great way for people to identify each other and connect with a purpose.

Becoming learners for life

So,
if students do not “finish” a class, how can we be sure individual have
the necessary skills to perform a task or a job? We move from grading
to regularly assessing competencies. And there is a much better way than
completing online tests for life. Let us "gamify" (Wikipedia) learning, individual, and professional development!

Rather
than having school transcripts which show how well one did in each
class, how about having a trophy case, assessing one’s soft and hard
skills? A simple way for us to understand our strengths and areas where
we might wish to develop ourselves, either to pursue a specific career
path or achieve a specific personal growth.

Through
knowledge gamification, individuals are empowered to improve themselves
and pursue their aspirations, which is the first step to become a
learner for life.

What is your take? Is your
professional growth dependent on a degree? Would purposeful networking
help you achieve your goals? Can gamification help you become a learner
for life? Feel free to use the comment box below to share your
experience and point of view. And please follow me, if you would like to
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About Me

A strategic data and technology leader
focused on: customer satisfaction, team development, and business
results. Passionate for customer success, approaches data and
technology as business enablers. Global experience includes managing
multi-million-dollar P&L; Solution Selling for Fortune100
customers in Finance, Service Providers, and Government segments; new
ventures; sales partnership/enablement; and geographically-diverse
organizations.

Strategy and Business Planning:
Created and implemented strategies for solution selling,
hosted/SaaS, outsourcing/managed services and professional services
businesses;